The Lost Treasure Of Tortuga CAlliope Theatre Company Study Guide The Lost Treasure of Tortuga Welcome to The Lost Treasure of Tortuga by Calliope Theatre Company. Our touring production of The Lost Treasure of Tortuga, an original one hour presentation, has been designed to “Educate, Enlighten & Entertain!” In this study guide, developed by professional educators and English-language teachers, you will find Pre- and Post-Performance Activities and Discussion Topics, as well as teacher and student resources. For students who are learning English we have also included key vocabulary so that your students will get the most out of our performances. This study guide may be reproduced and distributed to students. It can be found on our website https://www.calliopetheatrecompany.pt/the-lost-treasure-of-tortuga Calliope Theatre Company’s The Lost Treasure of Tortuga is an interactive performance and we encourage your students’ participation and we will be asking a number of your students to join us on stage. Calliope Theatre Company welcomes your opinion & suggestions on our performances and Study Guides, so that we can continue to provide teachers and students with the finest in- school, educational theatre experience. We love hearing from students and teachers. Please encourage your students to leave a comment on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/calliopetheatreportugal/ , follow us on Twitter or write us letters and tell us what you thought of the show! Sincerely, Meg and Matthew Calliope Theatre Company 2 The Lost Treasure of Tortuga TABLE OF CONTENTS The Vocabulary and Activities that are highlighted in red are the most important in ensuring that your students understand and enjoy The Lost Treasure of Tortuga. If you only have a limited amount of time to prepare your students for the show, we suggest you focus on these Vocabulary Items & Activities. All of the Activities in our Study Guide may be copied and given to your students. The Answer Key for all of the Activities is on Pages 25 - 27. THE LOST TREASURE OF TORTUGA – Play Synopsis 4 PIRATE, PRIVATEER OR BUCCANEER? 4 WHO’s WHO IN THE PLAY – Captain Bligh 5 WHO’s WHO IN THE PLAY – Henry Morgan 6 WHO’s WHO IN THE PLAY – Student Roles 8-12 VOCABULARY 13-14 VOCABULARY ACTIVITY – Adjectives- Antonyms & Synonyms Race 15 VOCABULARY ACTIVITY – Adjectives- Comparative & Superlative 16 VOCABULARY ACTIVITY – Nouns 17 PIRATE FLAG – Art & Imagination Activity 18 THE CARIBBEAN – Geography & Maths Activity 19 PIRATE STEW – Word Search Activity 20 THEATRE – Discuss & Draw Activity 21 WHO’S WHO IN THE THEATRE – Class Discussion Ideas 22 LIFE IN THE 17th CENTURY – History Activity 23-24 ACTIVITY ANSWERS 25-27 ABOUT THE ARTISTS 28 3 The Lost Treasure of Tortuga Calliope Theatre Company’s Play – Synopsis High Seas Adventure… Swashbuckling Sword Fights… and, of course, Treasure Chests Full of Gold! What’s not to like? But Captain Morgan Blah (pronounced Bligh!) has had enough of the pirate life. He decides to hire his replacement, but proper pirate captains don’t come cheap! He needs gold… and lots of it! Captain Blah and his crew (your students!) must uncover Tortuga’s secrets to find the famed Lost Treasure! Joined by a mysterious ‘stowaway,’ Captain Blah encounters the island’s weird and wild natives in search of The Lost Treasure of Tortuga! PIRATE, PRIVATEER, or BUCCANEER? Terms like Pirate, Buccaneer, and Privateer are often used as synonyms. However, each of these terms has a separate and distinct meaning. A Pirate is any person who uses the sea to commit theft. Pirates used boats to attack ports or ships. Above all else, pirates were breaking the law. A Privateer is any individual granted license by their government to attack shipping belonging to an enemy government, usually during a war. Privateers raid enemy ships and keep a percentage of the spoils A Buccaneer was either a Pirate or Privateer operating in the 4 Caribbean during the late 17th and early 18th century. The Lost Treasure of Tortuga We have taken great liberty with the characterisation of Captain Morgan Blah (pronounced “Bligh”!). Our Captain Blah is based on two real-life sailors, Captain William Bligh and privateer (pirate) William Morgan. Here are brief biographies of each of them. Captain William Bligh William Bligh (9 September 1754 - 7 December 1817) was an officer of the British Royal Navy and colonial administrator. He is best known for the famous mutiny that occurred against his command aboard HMS Bounty. After the Bounty mutiny he became Governor of New South Wales (Australia), where his stern rule caused another rebellion. In 1787 Bligh became leader of a small expedition sent to Tahiti to get breadfruit trees. These would be planted in the West Indies as food for the slaves. The Bounty left Tahiti loaded with breadfruit trees and, after only three weeks, his first mate Fletcher Christian led a mutiny (take over) of the ship. Christian wanted to go back to Tahiti. This event is called the Mutiny on the Bounty. Bligh and 18 seamen were put into a small boat, with little food or water, four swords, a sextant, a pocket watch, but no map. Amazingly they were able to get to Batavia (now Jakarta), a distance of 6701 km, in just 47 days! Bligh finally got back to England and later travelled to Australia. 5 The Lost Treasure of Tortuga HENRY MORGAN The Buccaneer King Despite the fact that some of his actions were brutal, Henry Morgan was not a pirate. The Welshman was a magnificent buccaneer, certainly the most famous one. Described as a remarkable leader and a fearsome conqueror, Morgan had a couple of legendary battles and his unique tactics brought him fame and wealth. As a youngster, Henry was an ambitious and very lively person who dreamt of being a sailor. Wanting to gain wealth and fame, he joined England’s navy to serve as a buccaneer. Finally, in 1662, he became a captain of a small privateering vessel and his many successful raids made him very wealthy. In 1669, Morgan was planning a large-scale attack on the Spanish port of Cartagena to gain a tremendous amount of treasure. But things did not go as planned. Many of his crew ended up drunk on rum, and they accidentally lit a fuse that ignited explosives on his ship, the Oxford, causing the ship to blow up and sink. Over the years to come, Morgan returned to the site of the Oxford’s sinking three times, and was stopped each time by some unfortunate incident. He was never able to recover the treasure from the sunken ship. Captain Morgan Shipwreck Possibly Discovered! LiveScience, 2011 (edited) Divers have found part of a shipwreck that could possibly belong to one of Captain Morgan's lost ships. The divers found a 52-foot-long (15.8 meters) by 22- foot-wide (6.7 m) chunk of a ship's wooden hull. The ship's name isn't on the hull, but the archeologists gathered clues about the hull and are building their case that it was once part of the legendary buccaneer’s fleet. The hull appears to have been built in the 17th century, when Morgan would have been sailing. It was found near the recent discovery of cannons believed from Captain Morgan's ships. The dive team also found chests filled with unknown booty and artifacts that will help identify the ship as one of Morgan's. 6 The Lost Treasure of Tortuga ACTIVITY #1 - Write a News article Have students write a news article about the discovery of a famous pirate ship. Who were the marine archaeologists? What did the divers discover? What modern technology did they use? Was their treasure? How much of the ship remained after hundreds of years. Here’s a look at 5 famous Pirate Ships. 1. Adventure Galley - Captained by Scottish sailor William Kidd, the 287-ton, three-mast Adventure Galley and its crew hunted down pirates and enemy French ships to steal their treasure and goods. The Adventure Galley was outfitted with 34 guns, and 23 oars for maneuvering the ship in calm winds. Pirate hunting, it turned out, wasn't easy. Captain Kidd abandoned the Adventure Galley, which had developed a rotten hull, off the coast Madagascar in 1698. 2. Queen Anne's Revenge - English pirate Edward “Blackbeard” Teach captured a French slave ship, in 1717. Slave ships made good pirate ships because they were built for speed. The Queen Anne's Revenge was one of the most powerful ships in American waters. Blackbeard eventually ran the ship ashore and many historians believe he wrecked the ship deliberately to kill off some of his crew and increase his share of the fortune. The ship was discovered in 1997 and marine archaeologists have been bringing up treasure from its remains ever since. 3. Fancy - In May 1694, while stationed aboard the ship, Charles II, Henry Avery plotted a mutiny that would launch his new and short-lived career as a pirate. Following the successful takeover, Avery, renamed the ship the Fancy and set out with his newly liberated crew to seek a fortune. The Fancy, which boasted nearly 50 guns and a crew of 150, terrorized ships in the Indian Ocean and later the Bahamas. 4. Whydah - The Whydah was captured by pirates led by Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy. It is• believed to have been carrying treasure from more than 50 ships when it sank in a storm off the coast of Cape Cod in 1717. Professional treasure hunter Barry Clifford discovered the ship in 1984 and has since recovered more than 100,000 artifacts from the site.